NOTICE HOW THEY CHANGED THEIR OPINION OVER TIME
Many people remember the heated scientific debate on the possibility of developing an artificial blood substitute
based on perfluorocarbons, a debate that spilled over into the mass media. Our journal likewise took part in that
debate and, in 1989, published the findings of an interdepartmental commission, approved by the bureau of the
Academy's Division of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and the Chemistry of Physiologically Active Compounds.
The commission-after analyzing the status, development prospects, and possible applications of domestic per-
fluorocarbon emulsions-had stated: "there are thus far no preparations in the country, based on perfluorocar-
bon emulsions, suitable for practical use both as a blood substitute-as an oxygen carrier-and as a perfusion
fluid. However, the preparation of perfluorocarbon emulsions for organ and tissue perfusion appears highly
probable in the very near future." (Vestn. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1989, no. 6, p. 62). In 1990, work on a perfluoro-
carbon blood substitute at the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics, suspended in 1985, was
resumed. And on February 13, 1996, a registration certificate, no. 96/50/10, was obtained for the Perftoran gas-
transporting perfluorocarbon blood substitute. The preparation has been permitted for medical use and indus-
trial production in the Russian Federation. This major achievement of science in Russia is the subject of the two
following articles by the creators of Perftoran. |
